The latter years of the twentieth-century saw increased visibility and politicization of gay men and lesbians in London. The gay and lesbian rights groups formed in the 1960s flourished in the 1970s. New venues for gay men and lesbians were established as areas of the city became more welcoming. The nightclub Heaven opened its doors in 1979, and soon became the largest gay disco in Europe.

The election of Margaret Thatcher in 1979 and the introduction of her decidedly anti-gay measures only added to the political context that gay and lesbian Londoners would organize around in the 1980s. The infamous Clause 28, adopted by Thatcher's government in 1988, was a direct response to the success of gay and lesbian activism in the city. It prohibited the promotion of homosexuality or teaching in state schools the acceptability of homosexuality as a "pretended family relationship."

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If Clause 28 was a conservative reaction to the gay-positive actions of the London city authorities, it in turn sparked an ever increasing activism on the part of gay and lesbian Londoners. The homophobic measure may be said to have made gay activists out of people who might never have come out, such as, for example, the actor Ian McKellen, who revealed his homosexuality in a BBC radio interview in response to the legislation, and then joined with other prominent gay men and lesbians to form the Stonewall Group, Britain's first major lesbian and gay rights lobbying organization. Other organizations, including the group OutRage!, agitated for the repeal of Clause 28, which was finally repealed in 2003.

Thatcher's radical free-market and individualist politics in many ways contributed to the rise of the Soho, London's gay ghetto. The 1980s and early 1990s saw a renewed and increased vigor in gay politics. Responding to the new voracious commercial consumerism, the AIDS crisis, and a conservative government's repressive and reactionary measures, London's gay men and lesbians sought to create a visible niche for themselves.

Soho, featuring London's former red-light district and Old Compton Street, became the place that reflected the new political agenda as well as restored queer self-confidence in urban, public space. During the 1990s, London's gay scene expanded immensely, as politically upfront visibility merged with free-market commercialism.

Soho and Old Compton Street occupy the ideal space for a new gay community. In the heart of London, the area is positioned between some of London's busiest areas, sitting only blocks from such popular destinations (and old, familiar cruising grounds) as Covent Garden, Chinatown, and Piccadilly.

The new queer visibility in the heart of England's capital did, however, make gay men and lesbians targets. Following similar racially motivated attacks in London, a crude nail bomb exploded in the Admiral Duncan bar in Old Compton Street on April 30, 1999, killing two and injuring more than eighty.

Money was poured into the Soho neighborhood as investors saw gay men and lesbians as a huge, untapped commercial resource, and gay men and lesbians continued to see a need for physical boundaries to define their community as an expression of new urban freedom.

However, the glbtq community in London is by no means limited to the Soho. Gay men and lesbians live throughout the city, including areas such as Earls Court, Islington, and central and inner-city London. With recent political successes on both the national and municipal levels, London's gay men and lesbians have become an increasingly visible and significant part of London life.

A form of behavior modification that employs unpleasant and sometimes painful stimuli, aversion therapy was one of the more popular treatments for homosexuality and cross-dressing in the 1950s and 1960s.

The Bloomsbury circle's open acceptance of erotic license and hostility toward social convention are important elements in the history of homosexuality among the English upper classes in the first half of the twentieth century.

After a period of decline, Brighton, an English seaside resort with a reputation for attracting the artistic and the bohemian, is once again vibrant, thanks in no small part to a flourishing glbtq community.

The United Kingdom has a rich and vibrant legacy of queer cultural expression despite a long history of severe legal sanctions against male-male sexual acts and other manifestations of sexual and gender deviance.

Twentieth-century efforts to reform British law and public opinions about homosexuality met with mixed results, but at the beginning of the twenty-first century the United Kingdom has emerged as a leader in recognizing the rights of its glbtq citizens.

In British law, Section 28 of the Local Government Act, enforced from 1988 until 2003, prohibited the promotion of homosexuality and teaching the acceptability of homosexuality as a "pretended family relationship".

The Cleveland Street scandal of 1889, involving members of the nobility and allegations of a government cover-up, fueled the perception of homosexuality as an aristocratic vice that corrupted working-class youths.

Sponsor of the English translation of the Bible that bears his name and himself an accomplished author, James VI of Scotland (and later James I of England) was well known for his passionate attachments to handsome young men.

Arguably the finest Shakespearean actor of his generation, Ian McKellen was the first British subject to be knighted after publicly revealing his homosexuality, an event that proved more controversial within the gay community than in the mainstream.